Heart of a Platyborg
by funnyfanwolf
Summary: This is the story of when Perry was turned into a platyborg and how he fought to remember and break through Dr D's grip. He seeks to remember his past and a way to escape from Doof's evil clutch...
1. Prolouge

Everything was blurry and fuzzy, a dull throb hammered inside Perry's head and it felt like all his joints were rusted. He let out a weak groan and wondered what happened, all he seemed to recall was a burning hot feeling surrounding him, he remembered Doof''s scream of anger but everything else was dull and hazy. Letting out another moan, he tried to open his eyes more, his right eye seemed fine to use, but the other seemed to only see everything in a strange blue colour, Perry shook his head but it remained as it was.

Then he saw the dark shapes surrounding him, fuzzy and blurry, he was sure it wasn't his eyes, so he tried to move. Nothing happened. His body parts seemed to be held in place by some invisible rope, he couldn't move his arms, legs or even his finger tips. Growling in frustration he tugged harder but to no avail, then the shapes around his began to see his movement and turned to him, pairs of red glowing eyes could barely be seen through his strange prison.

A voice suddenly called out from beyond the shapes, faint at first, but it came closer, sounding angry, cold and yet so familiar. The shapes moved to one side to make way for the newcomer, and then another shape appeared before the prison, thinner and shorter, staring intently at Perry. The platypus shivered and although he could not see them, Perry could feel a gaze of hatred piercing his face. The figure then moved to one side and lifted what looked like a finger to a flat surface and a light appeared above Perry's head. Because his arms and hands would not move, Perry could not shield his face from the light, but he turned away, slamming his eyes shut against the sudden brightness. He stayed like that for a while, then slowly opened his eyes, trying to get used to the light.

"Ah, finally awake I see?" Perry's head rose up the prison walls and saw none other than Dr Heinz Doofenshmeritz standing above him, though he looked different, terribly different. Instead of his pharmacist coat and black trousers, he was clad in a long leather coat and long grey gloves. His right eye was gone too, that's what worried Perry, and in its place was a black eye patch, painted white to look like the scar ran through it. What had _happened?_

Perry's eyes narrowed, trying to not only recover his lost memories, but to send a message to Doof. _Let me out before I tail-whack you face!_ But the Dr only smiled and circled the prison. Perry then realised that he was in some sort of test tube, now the lights were on inside, he could see all around him, he guessed it was only one-way glass.

The dark figures he had seen were robots, a lot similar to Doof's robot Norm, supposedly an evil creation, but completely hopeless. These ones were a little different however, instead of having legs; they hovered off the floor and seemed more metallic and dangerous than fancy and clumsy. Heinz had finally gone a step up.

Doof let out a little chuckle and Perry snarled in return, tugging on his bonds desperately, but all the Dr did was laugh and tap on the glass mockingly, a grin slapped across his face. Not a grin like the old Doofenshmirtz had, this one was twisted and crooked and Perry shuddered as his good eye gleamed with evil glee.

"There is no use trying to escape Perry the Platypus... There is no way you will be able to escape this one..." Doof's voice was the same, but anger was hinged to his words, they seemed full of rage and spite, it made Perry nervous.

Nether-the-less, the Platypus tugged harder, there was always a way out of Doof's traps, there was a realise button in the cage, something to throw at a button to be free, something to smash the glass with. He began to look around for something, anything, which would help him escape. But with him unable to move nothing but his head, it seemed impossible to do so, plus, there was glass separating his from the rest of the room, so all he could do was remain there, trapped like a mouse to a cat. He growled in frustration and glared at the Doc, whose smile remained on his face, satisfied with the fact his nemesis could not escape.

"You see Perry the platypus? No way out and even if you did, I don't think that you could get very far with the...current, state you are in,"

_Current state? What is he talking about?_ Perry growled in confusion and impatience and watched as Doofenshmirtz waved a hand and barked an order to a robot. The robot did as it was asked and its chest opened up and pulled out its content, a mirror. Then it flew over to the prison with it clutched in its metallic hands and paused before the platypus, waiting for its next orders.

"Ah," Doofenshmirtz said "I suppose you want a better look at yourself, right?" He leant over to control panel and pressed a few buttons, then Perry found he was able to move again. He should have banged the glass to smash it, kicked or tried to escape, but the robot turned to mirror around and what Perry saw next made his blood turn cold.

He was no longer a platypus. It looked like that anyway, he no longer had his fur or his skin, his whole body was replaced with metal and machinery, his left hand and arm were metal and his head was covered with a thin, black sheet of metal. The only part of him which really stayed the same was a part of his tail, a foot and his right hand.

He stared at his regular hand for some time, too shocked and too scared to do anything, the robots and the Dr just observed as he stared. Then he flexed his fingers. But there was no feeling there, he couldn't even feel the warmth of his own blood, did he even have blood now? Or did he just run on oil?

He stared at his eyes, one was gone, just like Doof's, but this time, its replacement was a metallic lens, blue and glowing in the dully lit room, he reached up and touched it with a shaking hand. He heard Doof's growl and looked up to him tapping on his eye-patch.

"An eye for an eye, eh, Perry the platypus?" and he turned away slightly. Perry stared for a moment, then went back to his body and stared at his arms and hands.

He moved his metallic hand; the sound of machinery came from its movement, with a gulp of nervousness, Perry ran it along his hand and arm. There was nothing. No feeling or tingle came up his arm, any tickle or touch. He was aware of it being there, but it did not seem to register as..._real_.

Nothing.

Then there came the laughter. The horrible, mocking and heartless laughter of Dr Doofenshmirtz echoing around the building and making Perry's head shoot upwards. Then Perry felt something that he had hardly ever felt before...rage. A pure, dark and tearing rage that welled up inside him like a volcano ready to erupt, like a lion willing to pounce, it boiled and burned at his insides. So he smashed his fist onto the glass in a fir of fury. It didn't break, but the glass made a slight groaning sound.

Heinz laugher took him backwards and onto the panel, where he pressed another button as he fell, the bonds returned and, once again, Perry could not move. Tears of anger and sadness poured from his one good eye, the other glowed brightly. He no longer cared about escaping, what Doof had done to him was unforgivable, how could he? _How could he?_ What would he do? What about the agency, what would they thing? His family...Phineas and Ferb, what would they think? What would happen?

_I hate you... _ Perry's thoughts seemed to echo in the air, he did not expect his enemy to understand his words, but his growls and shouts would certainly get across. _I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!_

He tugged and pulled on his invisible ropes screaming and growling curses at Doofenshmirtz, how he was going to get him and make him pay! Pay for what he's done! But it was no use, he could not break free, he didn't even have his hat. He gave one last effort to free himself, but when it failed, he hung his head, sobbing painfully.

The Dr gave one last little chuckle, then walked over to the tube and smiled down at the platypus "You took something from me Perry the platypus and so I took something from you in return..." Perry snarled, but was not able to meet Doof's gaze. "You should be thanking me really...You were in quite a state, if it was not for my technology and inventions you would have been dead by now..." Still he did not move "You may ask why I saved you in the first place, right? Well, I have something planned for you Perry the platypus, I tried it before but it didn't turn out so well..." He walked over to the panel once more and began to type. "I'm sure you remember one of my previous inventions? The turn-everything-evil-inator? Well, I've taken the same substance used in that and place it to your cell there..."

Perry looked up and for the first time saw smaller tubes attached to it, filled with a greenish type of gas and held his breath...

"Yes..." Doof grinned "I knew you would never join me of your own free will so after I'd...repaired you...I placed you in this cell, soon you'll be mine to command and there is _nothing_ you can do to stop me!"

Perry's eyes were wide with fear...He had tried this before, but under another complete set of circumstances. Was this how it would end? To become evil and work for the very man he despised? As Doof typed Perry recalled his family, his friends, his work. Major monogram would fall if his best agent would turn evil, Carl would be forced to work for Doof...if the Tri State area was in the hands of Doof, he dreaded to think what would happen to his family...

The gas tubes opened and Perry could feel the warm air being pumped into the small space, he did nothing, because there was nothing _to_ do. He had failed...

Phineas and Ferb would be heartbroken to find their friend and pet had gone and Candace's heart would break at seeing her brothers so sad...

Green began to surround him, Doof watched to see if his nemesis would do anything, but it seemed that the platypus had completely given in.

Phineas wouldn't give up, he never gave up, so Perry shouldn't, he couldn't...So he tried to move, to break free, he tugged with all his might and will, even as his vision began to cloud. He thought of Phineas, of Ferb and their friends of their amazing adventures and inventions...it gave him hope...

The gas flew upwards...

Then his arm moved, in realising this, tugged harder and his right hand and arm broke free of their bonds, then slowing, the rest of his body did too. So he did the only thing he could. He lunged at the glass, hammering weakly at it, barely even scratching the surface.

The gas flooded inside his mouth...

His hammering grew weaker, until only his good hand remained on the glass, he panting filled the chamber, he couldn't see anything through the green...his thoughts became twisted and jumbled.

Phineas...Ferb...

The gas closed in still.

Phin...eas...and Ferb...

Fading away...into darkness.

Ph...in...eas...F...erb...

His eyes closed and he drooped down the floor, his hand grinding against the glass.

_I'm sorry. _


	2. Chapter 1

**3 MONTHS LATER**

"Major Monogram!" The loud scream called out to Major Francis Monogram, he looked up from his maps and plans and saw his young intern Carl rush towards him, a Panda and a Dog followed behind him.

"Blast it Carl! I'm trying to figure out our next move, can't you leave me in peace for at least one minute!" The major called to him as he approached.

"But major, there're coming! The Norm-bots! They somehow broke through our security systems! There are too many, our agents can't hold them off!" the intern panted, grinding to a halt, it was then Monogram noticed the two animals were Agent Peter the Panda and Pinky the Chihuahua. They were both covered in dirt and tiny bits of debris, tiny cuts and bruises were there too, not serious but it looked painful and he noted how they're hats were battered and nipped at the sides.

"What shall we do sir? They're coming closer by the second!"

For a moment Monogram was dumbfounded at how they had managed to get through they're security systems and why Doofenshirmtz had suddenly got smarter and more organized. He stared at his intern whose face was clad in fear and shock, then to the two agents who stared back. Peter with his blank expression and Pinky with his hard gaze.

The sound of angered animals sounded far away and booms and smashing echoed into the room, how did he do it? Monogram quickly shook it off.

"Okay then! Pinky, gather your division and try to stop the robots from getting further inside the building, if it seems to fail retreat back here, Peter, gather our agents and get them in there now as fast as you can! Carl, get typing, try to get the security systems and the cameras working! Go, now!" The three agents saluted and ran off in different directions, Carl rushed over to one of the computers and started typing, and Peter ran off down a thin corridor, Pinky, another on the other side.

It left Monogram standing alone in the middle of the floor, clutching his fists at the sound of the animals fading footsteps. He turned back to his desk and leant over it, scanning over the papers to distract him from the worry of the robots.

For a moment there was silence, with nothing but the sound of explosions and cries in the distance, and then there was a bigger explosion than before that seemed to shake the whole room, Carl fell of his seat and the major staggered to one side, leaning on the table for support. The major growled and steadied himself, how _did_ this happen? What happed to Dr D? More importantly, where was his top agent?

Monogram slammed his fist on the desk; making his young intern jump "This wouldn't be a problem if Agent P was still here! What happened to him Carl? Where _is_ he?"

The young intern pulled himself back onto his feet and dusted himself off, frowning "You know better than I sir, that there has been no sign of him for the last three or so months, I'm just concerned about the boys..."

"The boys?"

"Agent P's owners!" Carl snapped "They've been searching for him as well you know and they still haven't found him, if they can't, no one will," he continued to type, his fingers moving faster and faster on the keyboard "You know who has him sir, we just don't want to imagine it."

Carl turned silent once more and typed away, Monogram blinked and stared at him, knowing what he said was true. When Perry went missing, it had been a normal day, but then the news came that the top of the Doofenshirmtz evil Inc building had blown up, after seeing it on the news, the agency had assumed the worst, but after the government searched the remains of the building neither man nor animal could be found. The remains of one of Doof's inators were there though, they still hadn't managed to put it back together or discover what it did. A lot of the pieces were missing or completely destroyed, it was impossible to despiser what piece went where.

The searches for Perry had commenced the day after, the agency searched the building first, disguised as police men and women, the animal agents then searched the surrounding area. When no sign of the top agent could be found, they searched further, until the entire of the Tri State area had been searched. Carl was right; the boys had created the most amazing inventions throughout the summer and had created new ones just to find Perry, none had succeeded. iIf Phineas and Ferb couldn't find Perry, no one could.../i

A nearby explosion cast Monogram's thoughts away and he span round to see a group of agents sprint into the room, Peter with them. All the agents were covered in dirt and debris from the explosions, some with cuts and bruises, a dog had a slight limp.

"Good work Peter," Monogram said and the panda saluted, then he twisted round to face the intern "Carl! Are the cameras up yet?"

"One second sir," he clicked a few more buttons and the huge screen clicked on, showing at least a hundred different camera angles in different places. However, some cameras only showed a fuzzy image, others did not work at all. "There they are!" Carl cried and pointed to one of the screens where a bunch of agents were trying to fight off huge hovering robots that were blasting lazars and fire at them. Among the animal agents was agent Pinky, who, by far, seemed to be doing the most work.

The Chihuahua leapt at a robot and forced it back with a surprisingly strong kick for a little dog, the metal heap fell back and crashed into two other robots and they crashed into the wall with a loud clang, but soon, at least 5 more came to take their place. A few minutes later the hall was stuffed to the brim with the devilish robots.

"Pinky, order your agents to fall back, make your way back here, where we'll make our stand!" Monogram ordered through the contacting watch and soon Pinky and his division had disappeared from the view of one camera to another, quickly making their way back to the others. Carl shut down doors and switched on some security systems best he could, it slowed the bots down, but did not stop them, for just as soon as Pinky and the Agents joined the group there was a great banging on the main metal door.

"There are too many, we won't be able to fend them off!" Carl cried and stood up from the computers, unable to do much more with his technology.

All of the animal agents stared up to Major Monogram sparks of determination and tiny flares of hope in their eyes. But the major knew they would be no match to the army of robots outside. He ran ideas and plans through his mind, scenarios and escape routes but there always seemed to be some kind of flaw in each one. The one moment Monogram could show he was a good leader and he could think of nothing to save them or the organisation, what happened to the rest of the government? Why didn't they know of this? There should be backup running through the doors right now trying to help them. But nobody came.

All the while the Major kept casting his thoughts back to agent P. If Perry were here he would have been able to direct the agents and fight of the robots, Perry was the best agent of them all, he would have been worth at least three of those robots. The bangs on the metal door sounded louder and Monogram shook off the thought of Perry, he was not here, so the platypus could not help. It was up to him.

"We need to have some sort of weapons, Carl, are there any gadgets in here we can use?" Monogram said.

"I believe we have some, sir," the intern walked over to a wall and pressed a button at the side, the wall flipped round and in its place were grappling hook guns, communication watches, training staffs and some other small things that did not seem to have much use. There didn't seem to be enough for one each. The major bit his lip in both nervousness and in thought, there were too many robots and they didn't have the right, if not, enough, equipment to help fight them back. What was there to do?

The bangs on the door increased, the agents all looked nervously at each other, turning from the door back to Monogram who stood in thought, staring at the gadgets intently. Carl twiddled with his fingers in silence, biting his own lip and turning round to face the door every time a bang sounded. They remained like this until the major suddenly clicked his fingers and a smile crept onto his face.

"I've got it!" He announced "Grab those grappling hook guns! The other things as well, I have a plan..."

No sooner had Major Monogram announced his plan, the slamming on the door stopped, for a moment, there was a pause where fear and panic arose in the air, then a loud humming sound came and a red lazar mark appeared on the door. They were cutting themselves in.

Monogram stood in the centre of the room staring at the mark as it drove itself around in an arc. He swallowed his fear and tried to remain strong and serious, although a sweat dripped down the side of his head. He hoped this plan worked; otherwise, they were done for.

Then the door flew foreword in a tremendous force, so hard, that Monogram had to quickly jump out of the way before it crushed him. The robots came hording in, eyes glowing red, their hands changed to lazars and guns, the major stared as they moved towards him, weapons held up to his face.

"You will surrender!" One of them said in its robotic voice, it made Monogram shiver.

"Never!" He replied, he tried to sound tough and all that, but his voice sounded hoarse and scared.

"Then we shall take you by force!" The robot said and held his arm up ready to fire.

Monogram smiled "Not so fast, junk pile! NOW!"

From their hiding places around the room, agents leapt out and shot the grappling hooks out of their guns, though few of them they were, they put them to good use, as soon as they had grabbed onto a robot, the agent holding the gun, ran around them, tying a bunch of robots up in one. There were at least five grappling hooks, so they managed to tie up a decent amount of robots, blocked the way for the rest and trapping the ones in front. Quickly, the agents without the grappling guns ran forward with the other remaining gadgets, leaping atop the trapped robots and pulling out wires and stuffing the communication watches they'd quickly rigged to fuzz out the robot's systems.

Seeing that the agents were doing well, Monogram ran to the very back of the room, where Carl sat on his laptop, clicking and typing as fast as he could to carry out Major Monogram's orders to send a distress signal to other bases.

"How's it going?" The major asked and stared down at the screen.

"To tell you the truth, not so well, the robots have blocked our signals, so we can't send a proper distress call," he clicked a few more buttons.

"But can you fix it?" Monogram frowned.

"I think so, but it'll take time and it'll be difficult."

"We don't particular have a lot of time left!"

An explosion sounded behind them and Monogram turned round to see a couple of robots had managed to get through and had blown up the camera screens. The agents quickly leapt atop the attackers and struggled to push them back again, but more and more bots were coming in, it was as if they'd never end. The tied up robots seemed to be blocking most of the way, but sooner or later, they'd break free and start their rampage.

"Whatever you're doing, Carl, do it faster!" Monogram growled behind clenched teeth.

The agents who had just attacked the escape robots were thrown off by a sweep of another bots hands, they flew backwards and slammed into the smashed screens, seeing their comrades fall, the others leapt in to help and the robots tied up, ripped the ropes to shreds, lunging their way forward back into the battle.

"Caaarrrlll..." Monogram growled as robots broke through the commotion, closing in on them.

"I've done it, but I don't think they'll retrieve it in time, sir!" Carl cried and looked up to ten robots that were beginning to surround them, both the young intern and the major were pinned up against the wall, a bead of sweat dripped down from Monograms head, Carl's face was covered in fear and he swallowed nervously.

They came closer, their red, robotic eyes glowing menacingly, as if staring straight into the pair's souls. This is it, they were done for, finished, the agents were fighting for their lives behind the group that advanced, some were unconscious, and others stood alone against an unfair number.

This was it, no one could save them now.

Then there was the loud crash and boom at the side of Monogram, he felt debris and dust fly past him, one nipping his cheek. The blast made the robots fall backwards, crashing into others behind them. Both agents and robots alike turned, the robots stared in anger and the agents stared in awe and happiness.

Out of the hole in the wall there came a figure, dressed in a pink tweed dress, their hair was short and brown and hung beside pierced ears. The figure walked forward, holding up a laser gun, a look of anger and frustration on their face, lips pushed back in a sour expression, a pointing nose looking down upon the robots.

"Now then," The laser gun clicked, as if it too was angry "Whose first?" Admiral Wanda Acronym said.

"Wanda!" Monogram cried, the admiral smiled and whistled loudly, then behind her came the animals of her division, she looked over to Pinky, who was one of her own and nodded, he saluted back and once again the sound of battled rushed through the room.

As the agents surged forward and pushed the robots back again, Wanda hurried over to Monogram and tossed both him and Carl and laser gun of their own.

"How did you-," Monogram started but Wanda interrupted.

"We knew something was wrong just as soon as we couldn't contact you, then it was confirmed when we saw a horde of robots heading towards your base, how did you not notice that Francis?"

Monogram didn't answer, but just blinked in amazement.

Carl yelped as he accidently pressing the fire button, it flew past Monogram's shoulder then into a robot which shook at the impact and crashed into the screens behind it, sending out sparks.

"Good work Carl," Wanda praised and turned back to the fray "Now, time to get even!"

Monogram watched as Wanda leapt into the battle, her eyes blazing and weapon firing repeatedly, she hit at least five robots before they began to close in on her, she shot two more, but it was not enough. _This is it.._. Monogram though and ran forward letting out a loud yell and slammed into a robot, then fired the gun, not paying attention to where it was aimed at, but gladly, it only hit robots and then fell before him. What a time to feel like a hero.

Wanda did not thank him however, instead she began shooting again, Monogram guessed that now was not the time for thanks, right now, there was a fight to win. Frowning, he shot down another few robots, the ones he hit either just collapsed, crashed into other or into something else. Then he looked around him.

The room was a complete mess, one of which would take months to repair, Monogram only dreaded to think what the rest of his dear base looked like. Computer screens were smashed and sparks flew out of them uselessly, walls were smashed and floors were covered in debris and oil from the robots. Some of the ceiling had caved in, crushing a few robots; Monogram hoped no agents were trapped under there too.

He then realised they were beginning to succeed in pushing the robots back, more and more fell and the others retreated back into the doorway. The agents looked tired, covered in dirt and both cuts and bruises, Pinky and Peter fought side by side with amazing strength whilst the others worked as small teams to defeat a robot. Maybe they didn't need agent P, it seemed as if they were doing well enough without him, they were winning, were they not?

Then the robots made a final attempt to push forward once more, they all moved at one, using themselves as a large wall or shield and shoved all the agents back. But the animals were not having any of this and thrust back, seeing the trouble, both Monogram and Wanda raced to help, Carl stayed where he was, shaking from head to toe, the gun looking useless in his hands.

Monogram had no idea what happened, but suddenly there was a loud noise, such a loud noise it seemed his ear drums would burst. The noise threw him back, fire leapt forward, its flames licking at his body and roasting his face. Everything was in slow motion for a moment, he saw Wanda's look of complete shock and horror. He saw the animal agents screaming in terror, he saw Peter and Pinky flying back the same way they were fighting, side by side.

The robots were falling too, some engulfed in the flames; he prayed that his agents would not suffer the same fate.

Then he hit something hard and everything span and flashed, then turned to black. Darkness crept in, Monogram's whole body ached and stung, his ears rang, his eyes drooped, his head slumped, then no more.

It seemed he was not unconscious for more than a minute, because next thing he knew was a dark figure standing in the doorway, his vision could not focus properly and he struggled to keep focus on the figure. Thick dust from the explosion surrounded him, other than the shape of his body; the figure could not be seen. All except an eye, that glowed bright blue in the darkness.

Groaning, Monogram shook his head and tried to look harder at the intruder. He squinted, noting how bulky the body looked, but the dust began to clear and saw a tiny splash of teal amongst a sheet of metal.

_Could it be?_ Monogram shook his head _no! It couldn't be!_

But it was... The dust cleared around the head of the figure and it revealed an orange beak, teal skin and brown eyes, one that shone brightly...

"A-agent P?" Monogram whispered, his whole body shook with both amazement and from his wounds.

The figure came forward, something was wrong; there was no growling noise that Perry usually made, no tip of the hat, no quick march into the room. Perry _wasn't_ wearing a hat! Then Monogram blinked and noticed something completely worse, he didn't even have a _body_!

"Perry?" He muttered, his voice sounded hoarse and in pain.

The platypus halted before Monogram's weak, crippled body and stared down at him, his eyes showing no emotion, he didn't even have a second eye, it just glowed, but Monogram saw something there, there was hate, there was loyalty, but no longer to him, then there was rage. He stared at the other eye, the platypus eye, looking at it first glance indicated the same thing as the robotic eye, but he looked deeper still and saw something that made his heart turn hard, there was pain, pain and a deep sadness.

Perry held up a robotic hand to Monogram's face as if to grab it, but the major was not looking at that, he was still looking deeply into that one good eye, staring at it right down into Perry's soul and for a moment saw a scared, weak little shadow of what Perry once was and it was crying, crying and staring back. It had no hat, as if honour had been ripped from him, instead it clutched its chest, feeling for his heart, was it even there, did robots even have hearts?

The robotic hand glowed bright red, Monogram could feel its head upon his face.

The shadow of Perry tightened his grip on his chest and stared into the major's own soul, sending a message, a note a look that broke Monogram's heart and turned it to ice. There were words, words that flashed from Perry's mind to his and Monogram felt himself clutch his own chest, tears welling up in his eyes.

The red light burned brightly, Monogram felt himself falling...

The words had said sorry...

NOTE FROM AUTHOR – There are pictures to go with this story, to see them please visit my DA page: .com/


	3. Chapter 2

The sky had turned darker, red and black and grey as if angry with the world below. Buildings were changed and the streets were nearly empty, apart from the factory cars and trains transporting the people. Others hid in their homes, scared of the world outside and the leader they had gained, he who sat at his desk in the tall evil Inc building, he who told the law, he who watched them, always.

The children in their houses cuddled up to their parents, scared to death of the other world, seeking protection against the darkness, but in truth, their parents were scared too. They clung to their children, afraid of what would happen if they let go, afraid that, at any moment, those evil, monstrous robots would crash in and take them away. They hid their fear the best they could, for the sake of the children.

Perry the Platyborg had just finished doing his run around the Tri State area with a group of Norm bots; they arrived at the Evil Inc building at 11:15. The once Agent P watched as the group dispersed and joined other robots in their duties. Then he turned and walked away, his head empty of feeling or emotive thoughts. His arms and legs moved automatically towards his master's office, at the very top of the building.

He thought for a moment, of his creator and how he came to be. He only remembered lights flashing and red eyes glaring, the touch of a green smoke, that, every time he thought of, it disappeared just as soon as he recalled it. There was nothing else before then, he was only created, and he was never born. Perry only remembered a thought. That thought was his goal, the reason for his existence, there was no other reason. The thought was to obey, to serve, to be loyal to his master. That was all.

He approached the big double doors leading into the office, the memories disappeared again and he pushed them open, they groaned as if in objection.

The office was very large, windows made up most of the purple walls and mosaic looking plants lay around the bottom of them. Doofenshmitz screens lined around one side of the room, rounded and glowing with the master's name. The desk lay at the end of the room, in the centre facing towards the door. It was horse-shoe shaped, green and black with papers and pens lying atop of it. The evil Dr D sat in his big purple and black swivel chair, hunched over in thought, scribbling away on a sheet of paper, his face twisted into a permanent frown of anger.

As the Platyborg came closer he set his eyes upon the eye patch that his master wore, black with a white scribble of a scar across it. He had often wondered what became of that eye, how it was removed, he saw his master wear the pouch though, the pouch that contained that eye, he wore it on his belt. Perry did not know why he wore it; he calculated that it was no longer of use to its former owner but still, the Dr never let it go.

Perry halted before the desk and stared at his master, he was sure the Dr had heard the door open but he showed no interest towards him. So he let out his growling noise, then Doofenshmitz looked up from his papers at his servant, his good eye glowing in annoyance and anger.

"Well? What is it?" Were the cold words that came out of Doofenshmitz's mouth.

In reply the Platyborg growled again and pointed out the window.

Doofenshmitz raised an eyebrow and swerved his chair round and stared out to where his servant was pointing, he saw the buildings rimmed with his name, the dark buildings and the lack of green and animals. He saw the darkness and the dull and the factories where the people worked under his command. Then he saw another band of robots march out into the streets to do their own errands, taking over Perry's.

"Ah, I see," the doctor said and turned back to Perry "Anything to report then?"

"_Grrr_," Perry said and pushed a button on his robotic wrist, an illumination projected out of it and a picture of a group of teenagers and children came up, a couple were fighting a norm bot, a group were pushed some other back. Doofenshmitz frowned at the sight and pulled at his beard.

Then a girl's head appeared up on the screen, her eyes covered up by black sunglasses, she wore a black bandana atop her ginger hair that blew in the unseen wind. Even though her eyes were hidden behind the shades, Doofenshmitz could feel her hard, anger-filled gaze upon him. She knew he would watch this.

"_Doofenshmitz_!" She cried at the screen "_We are the rebels! You have taken something that belongs to us! Our homes! Our lives! Our freedom! You have forced us to stay in our homes, made kind people disappear, destroyed lives and homes and made us your slaves! No more! You are a cruel lying man! You sit on a throne of lies and terror! So let me tell you this! We're coming for you! We will free the people of the Tri State Area! We will free Danville! And YOU!"_ The girl ripped off her shades, her blue eyes burned with a wild and cold rage, she lifted a finger and pointed at the screen "_You're mine_!"

Then the screen flashed and the image disappeared.

For a moment Doofenshmitz was lost for words, and then his frown turned into a sudden grin. Perry watched and to his surprise, the Dr tilted his head back, took in a deep breath...and started to laugh! The platyborg watched in fascination, he had never seen his master laugh before. Then something clicked in his mind. What _was_ laugher? The thought lingered for a moment, a distant memory of a kind cried out inside Perry's head, a memory that confused him and couldn't quite grasp. Then Doofenshmitz let out his last HA and the memory was gone.

"This is brilliant!" The doctor grinned and rose from his chair "To think! I thought I'd spend the rest of my rule without any excitement! Oh, how I've missed having a-," Doofenshmitz paused and looked up to Perry, he gave him a look that aroused a type of confusion in the platyborg, Doof stared for a moment with his servant looking back, then, whatever was on his mind, he shook it off and walked over to one of the windows.

"Things have changed so much..." He said, his voice had turned serious, dark once more "But it's gone so well for me, everything is perfect... It's all mine...The Tri State area is mine..." The doctor stared outside for a while, a huge pause was left there, Perry waited, like a loyal servant should do and thought of nothing, like a robot should.

"But I have missed conflict...I've missed the battles and the traps and the thrill of having someone oppose you..." He turned for a moment to look at Perry, the platyborg calculated that his master was searching him for something, but what, he did not know, so he remained quiet and still. Doof frowned once more and swerved back to look out the window.

There was, once again, a long pause; it lasted for a while, to Perry's computer-mind it lasted exactly 1 minute and 25 seconds. The silence was finally broken when the doctor began to laugh again, it wasn't quite evil, or good, but Perry sensed a type of...Joy.

Joy.

What was joy?

"Finally! I have opposition! I have someone to battle!" Doof once again interrupted Perry's strange thoughts "Of course I'll win, but this will be great! Now I have purpose, I can no longer rest at this desk and write stupid laws and rules, I can now get back into the field! HA! Well rebels...You can come and get me...because I'll be waiting, I'll win and you will fall! HA! Let the fun begin..." He rubbed his hands together in glee and turned round and pointed a finger at Perry "Platyborg! Go assemble the norm-bots! Get the factories working faster! More robots! More inventions! Battle stations! Errands! Runs! Guards! Search parties! What are you waiting for! GO!"

Obediently, Perry saluted and turned, heading out of the double doors and out into the corridor, he quick marched back down the building. He thought nothing. Then he recalled those strange thoughts from before. Memories? He had no memories. He was a robot, a toy, a creation; he had no memories other than his creation, his making. He was never born. He never existed.

Joy.

What was Joy?

_Joy_.

It sounded so familiar, so known, yet so distant, a far off thought, something that no longer existed. His computer-like brain tried to figure this out, but he was incapable of feelings or emotion. He could not understand this _confusion_ this feeling that he could not shake, but was so easily forgotten.

"_Sir, what are your orders?_" Perry looked up and found himself looking at a Norm-bot, a feeling of unease settled through him, a feeling that he should not be here, that he should be away from this robot. He shook it off; he had a job to do.

He growled and pointed to the window, then to another group of bots passing by. The robot understood and saluted, then went off with his patrol. Perry was alone again; he waited for his group to arrive. But confusing thoughts echoed in his mind.

Joy.

What was Joy?


	4. Chapter 3

When Doofenshmitz said to double everything, he meant it, the factories burned faster, working the slaves harder and harder, the norm-bots continuously marched and patrolled the streets, searches for any in the rebellion were taken place, inators and machines were built and more guards were placed around the Evil Inc building.

It was a lot for a Platyborg to handle, it was a good job he was a robot. He monitored the norm-bots and the advancement in the factories and watched and listened for any rebel activity, Doofenshmitz seemed to get more and more excited about an attack on the Inc building. Perry knew that the Doc was not worried about them being able to take over the building, even he had calculated that. To get into the building would take allot of work and even if they managed to, there was the robots and guards as well as the lasers, cannons and inators to get past.

"They'll come soon; they'll make their move sooner or later..." The evil scientist had said and he kept saying things like this over and over again, convinced that the rebels would attack. He made all sorts of plans and designs for new machines and inators that soon his desk was filled with papers and blueprints. Perry had watched his master as he paced around the building, he watched as he observed the walls and the surrounding area for any strange activity or movement. But it seemed the attack would never come.

After a couple of weeks of waiting and preparation, the doctor began to get impatient and the angry frown returned to his face, deeper and more horrid looking than before.

"Where are they then!" He'd shouted at the Platyborg after he came to report that, once again, there had been no sign of the opposing force. "I've waited too long! If they were going to oppose me than why not attack now! What happened to good old fashioned straight in, capture, foil and escape!" And once again Doofenshmitz had turned to Perry, searching for something that he would not, or could not show.

Perry had wondered why his master kept staring at him so intently each time he mentioned something about 'the old days' or things to do with traps or battles and something beginning with the letter N that he never seemed to be able to say in front of his servant. So the Platyborg had concluded that it was something to do with his master's past, a past that maybe he wished would come back, but still Perry could not understand why the doctor looked to _him_ for the answer.

Perry walked down the corridor and his mind once more became fixed upon that thought, of his master's continuous gaze and the searching look in his eye. As we walked, he began aware of the sound of the beeping on his wrist communication and pressed the button to activate it. A hologram of Doofenshmitz appeared there, that frown etched onto his face.

"Platyborg!" He cried, his voice was tinged with annoyance and anger "The factories are not working fast enough! Speed it up! There are no pieces left for my prototype inators! I need to finish this! Get me more parts and double that work in those factories while you're at it!"

The hologram disappeared and obediently, Perry went to the factories, each one in turn to make sure the work was doubled, machinery and parts were low and he was informed by some of the norm bots that there was simply not enough for them to spare at the current moment, they were needed to build the inators that Doofenshmitz had ordered to be finished.

That meant no parts for Doofenshmitz to finish his inator prototype, each time he looking in a factory and checked for parts, it was all the same story. Later, the Platyborg had finally given in and headed back to the Evil Inc building and to his master's office. He would be angry that he had returned without the parts, but what could he do?

Silently, he marched across the main reception, calculating the reactions to his master once he told him the news. As he walked his robotic eye became focused on something and as curious as a robot could be, the Platyborg turned to see what had caught his attention.

It seemed to be a door, but as he approached it he noticed a sign held above it, it was not glowing nor was it flashing like a lot of the signs he'd seen in the building, so this intrigued him. iStorage and Basement/i it read.

It came to Perry's attention that there may possibly be old pieces of inators down there, or maybe parts that his master currently needed for his prototype. It was not a stupid idea; infarct Perry calculated that there might be a 40% chance of pieces being there, which was still a possibility. So silently, he opened the door and started to descend the dark, downward staircase.

If robots could smell, Perry would have probably inhaled the stench of rot, damp walls, dust and rust. Altogether, a pretty unnerving smell, but, being a Platyborg, it did not matter to him. The stairs went on for minute or so until his metal foot finally clanked against the concrete floor, the sound echoed for a moment, making the dampness and the dark seem even more eerie. But Perry's robotic eye was switch on and its bright, blue glow lit up the room.

The basement was full of boxes, boxes filled with old toys, objects, broken things and forgotten things. These were the things that had been rejected and left to rot in the darkness, like a child's toy that was left when the child grew up, it was once loved. One wall had a huge damp patch covering it, some of it was covered by a large bookshelf and as Perry approached he noticed how rejected and unkept the books were, torn and fading, some of the pages were strewn around the ground. They would no longer be of much use.

There was an old record player in one corner of the room, where the smashed records lay beside it as if in mourning. A couple of broken bikes were beside that, rusting together silently, one of the bikes had a tyre missing and the other was missing its handle-bars.

Perry searched for a while, looking for the parts his master would need, there was nothing of much use. There were old radiator caps and pipes but after a little calculation, Perry came to the conclusion that they would no longer be of use. So he began to look deeper into the back of the room, further and further into the darkness and black, his eye seemed to be sucked in by the darkness until it seemed that he would be better off without it on.

It was when Perry reached the very back of the room when he noticed something strange; it looked like a man, hunched over in the corner, as if weeping. As he approached, it looked like the man was wearing a suit but it looked so tight that it could be actually hurting the wearer. He made his eye-light glow brighter as he got closer and it was then Perry realised the man was not really a man at all, it was a robot.

It had the head of that of a norm-bot without its helmet on and unlike them, this robot had legs, one was jagged and in an awkward position and it was not as dark and armoured as those he commanded. Maybe this one had been a prototype? Or a test for the real thing? Perry wondered whether or not it still worked and hesitantly, nudged it with his foot, after no response came, he growled to see if it responded to the command. Again, nothing.

So the Platyborg decided to check the power source and leant the robot forward to check its back, the hatch had been torn open and the inside was rusting, all that was in there was an old hamster wheel, an alternate energy source? That did not sound like one of his master's inventions. His blue light glowed a little brighter and he realised there was a backup energy source, it ran on oil, he opened the cap, strangely enough, there was oil in there, it just needed something to reboot it.

There would be no harm in lending some of his own electrical power to switch on the robot would there? He pressed a button on his chest and a wire flew out of it once he released it, the Platyborg then attached the wire to one of the robots own wires and prepared himself to send energy over.

Perry calculated there would be a possibility that it would work and if it didn't, it was the end of the world. But what if this robot had a malfunction? What if it was even more violent than the rest? Well, then he could easily destroy it and use the parts to give to his master. Silently, Perry glared at the robot, at its rusted face with its big cheesy (yet creepy) smile and its broken leg and the rusted holes all over its chest. Then Perry felt something, was 'felt' the right word? Robots don't feel anything? But he was sure he felt something, deep within his mechanics and logic. It felt like a mouse or rust gnawing at his side or like a test laser being fired at his chest. It felt heavy in his metal body. But he did not know what it was.

He stared at the robot and it seemed to look straight back at him and a sort of memory snapped within the Platyborg's head, was it a memory? Or a malfunction? He saw faces, so familiar, so... Friendly? He heard laughter and the sound of song and a maniacal laugh. The feeling began stronger, so strong he staggered backwards and set off the energy share, the wire sparked with light and the robot before him jolted with the sudden supply of energy.

The lights flashed like lightening in the dark room and slowly the robot began to sit up straight, Perry figured it could have gone further if it were not for that broken leg. Its body groaned with the movement, crying out in objection, rust grinded and crumbled off the man, creating a rusted puddle of grey, brown and orange.

For a moment Perry felt something other than the gnawing, it was like something huge a doom-like hovered over him and he did something that robots should not do... He shivered.

Then the robots head turned, all the way round, round to face him, the creaking and groaning of its neck movement echoed in the blackness, it sounded like chalk against a blackboard and would have made Perry flinch had he not been strong enough.

The head was facing him now, the eyes glowing. Perry was unsure what would happen, would it attack him? Would it ask for orders? Would it just try to walk away?

It did none of these things.

"We," it said in a groaning, broken voice "Should do lunch sometime."


	5. Chapter 4

At first, Perry didn't know what to do. If a robot could feel surprise or even confusion, he would have felt it now. Though the Platyborg kept getting a sort of screen flashing in his head that kept saying '_Does not compute_' and maybe this _was_ a type of confusion.

The robot did not say anything else; it just stared, as if interested by the sight of Perry and the Platyborg stared back, unable to react to the strange words that the robot had just said. Maybe the robot had been damaged in some way that made its voice and responses go a bit off?

The Platyborg narrowed his eyes at the robot, not sure what he was looking for, and then the robot spoke, again, in that broken voice, that voice that had been neglected of speech for so long.

"What happened to you?"

Perry was taken aback by the question and raised an eyebrow in question, he didn't answer. What sort of a question was that? More importantly, robots didn't ask questions, they only answered them and followed orders. This robot must be broken, or its data mixed up, robots _did not_ ask questions.

"Well..." The robot said, his voice lingering in the air a while, it wasn't a question, it was a word to break the silence.

"What's wrong with you Perry the Platypus? Would you like a nice icy beverage?" The robot finally said.

Perry jolted backwards, how did it know his name? How did it know him? He stared at the bot, in a robotic state of shock that he could have shut down. Then a question popped up in Perry's head, what was a platypus? He was a Platy_borg_, so was a platypus similar to him, maybe another version of himself? Then Perry heard a distant call, it cried out to him in his head, a thought of a kind that clicked on in his systems, he saw a creature, a lot like himself, yet with no robot parts, it looked organic. We saw it but it did not seem to see him, it locked in an invisible cell and banging on the walls, his mouth moving up and down in a silent cry. A cry that could not be heard.

He had no idea what do, the Platyborg wondered where he was for a moment and stared intently at the creature in the cage, at its silent cries and screams and the desperation in his eyes. Surrounded by darkness and the lingering feeling or loneliness and fear, what was this?

"Excuse me..." A small, distant and quiet voice called to Perry in his solitude. "Hello?"

He felt himself falling backwards, back into another world, another time, another place and when he shook his head from the spinning sensation, he realised he was back in the basement, once again staring at the robot.

"Are you okay, sir?" The robot said.

Perry blinked and stared.

"I think that everything has changed, is that right?" The robot said "My master must be doing well, he said he's be back though to fix me up, or send someone to come and fix me, have you come to fix me Perry the Platypus?"

No, he hadn't, so the Platyborg shook his head. They must have the same master; the robot must be talking about Doofenshmitz.

"Oh, then he must have sent you to retrieve me?"

Again, Perry shook his head.

The robot was silent for a moment then said "You've changed too Perry the Platypus, what happened?"

Perry's eyes narrowed, he had not changed, he had an oil change this morning, is that what it meant? Perry shook his head at the robot, hoping it would understand this motion.

"Must be a new agent up-grade right?"

Agent? The Platyborg blinked as a sight came before him, fuzzy and dark, of animals and computer screens, smudges of brown and black upon their heads. Agent? _Does not compute_ his programming said _does_ not _compute_. It seemed foreign to Perry, yet, a type of curiosity and confusion remained and he sank down onto one knee, this robot knows something. Something that he did not know.

"Grrr..." Perry growled at the bot.

"Agent?" The robot seemed to repeat Perry's thoughts "You are an agent aren't you? You try to stop my master, remember?"

Perry raised an eyebrow, no, he didn't.

"No? Don't you? My master came up with all sorts of plans that didn't work and ultimately failed, because you stopped him all the time, I'm Norm, remember?"

The Platyborg shook his head.

"Until after the explosion..." The robots voice trailed off and his head tilted upwards, up the ceiling, as if searching for his master, or the thought that seemed to have faded away with his sentence.

It was enough to grab Perry's attention and he let out his clatter to get the robot to finish. What explosion?

"It was a long time ago I think," the robot said and looked back to the Platyborg "You came over to foil my masters plans again and I don't know what happened, I was in the cupboard and there was a big bang, everything broke and the walls fell, I flew upwards and managed to save my master, but there was something else... My memory data is corrupted...But next thing I know, my master put me down here, my power went low and I finally shut down."

What else was there? How did the explosion happen? What was 'something else?' The Platyborg needed answers and he growled in impatience and desperation at the robot.

"Right...I think you were...oh...I...SQUIRRALS..._phst_...NICE ICY..._phst_... I COULD DO WITH..._Phst_..." At first Perry was unsure of what was happening, then the robots eyes ceased to glow and his head drooped down with a creak. The robot had shut down.

Perry quickly rose and went round the back of the robot and checked its oil levels, there was no power left. What was he going to say? A robot should not ask questions, a robot only answered them, he only followed orders, and he only did as he was told. But right now, questions were popping up in Perry's mind, flashing in and out of his circuits.

He had to find oil for the robot he had found, for, what was it? Norm? Turn him back on again; fix his memory files and data bases. So many things erupted in Perry's head and he quickly gathered the parts Doofenshmitz needed, not quite forgetting why he came down in the first place.

He marched up the stairs and past the Norm-bots and up towards his master's office. All the while, his head jumbled with thoughts and forgotten sights.

A robot does not ask questions.

What was a platypus? What was an agent?

A robot only follows orders.

He had to go back down to the basement; he had to avoid doing his patrols to fix the robot.

A robot does not feel.

Confusion and a strange sensation kept thundering all around the Platyborg's circuits.

A robot does not have memories, only data and information about what he has been told.

Yet pictures and places he could not see in front of him kept flashing before his eyes.

And all the while, all the time, words flashed inside his mind, words that were programmed inside him and they kept appearing and flashed red in his robotic eye.

_Does not compute._


	6. Chapter 5

There were rules to being a robot, especially to Doofenshmitz and it seemed Perry was breaking every one of them. He was breaking the laws of robotics, he was thinking for himself, he was not following orders and the scariest thing was that he was _feeling_.

Feeling is a very strange thing, infarct, Perry had no idea what a 'feeling' meant, all he normally had was basic warnings in his circuits and systems, warning him about danger was one thing and another was the loyalty, he was meant to be loyal to the doctor, except it seemed he was falling away from that and into another world of his own. The world where pictures flashed before his eyes.

The pictures came and went, they were never clear, darkness shrouded most of them, sounds were heard too and Perry could swear he could smell strange yet wonderful scents in the air when it happened. He often heard laughter and voices that faded away after a couple of words, he saw eyes filled with joy and sometimes full of fear and horror. Sometimes these pictures that appeared seemed to be so strong that they seemed to corrupt his circuits and burn his data.

As for the strange robot in the basement, Norm, Perry knew he had to go back and fix him, fill him up with oil again. But the problem was getting time to do so, as the commander of Doof's army, he had a lot of duties and had to do patrols, errands and do things that the one eyed man told him personally to do. Yes, getting off was not easy.

There were also the other Norm-bots and the cameras positioned all over the building (apart from the basement of course) they always kept a look out and sometimes even Doofenshmitz watched the cameras for any sign of strange activity, but mainly left it to the bots.

Though he had managed to find some time one day whilst the doctor decided to do a sweep of a factory, robots went with him as an escort and Perry was not needed unless called for, he doubted he would be though. His master said that he would only be away for half an hour or so, so Perry had not enough time to go straight down to the basement. However, he _did_ have time to get a few things prepared.

He ordered a Norm-bot to fetch some parts, claiming they were for his master's inventions, which was easy to do and he hid them in a place which he discovered a while back where one of the panels in the wall could easily come loose and inside was a space large enough to fit a young child. It was there he started hiding some of his things and there was a bonus to this too, the cameras did not see it because it was on a rounded corner, where the gaze of the lenses could not reach.

Inside the wall he kept pieces of metal, tools and even a few cans of oil, there was nothing else of great importance there, nothing of great value. If the gap was ever found he could always get more things and the ones he had already collected would just be taken down to the factories, where he could just go fetch more parts.

Perry quietly shut the panel on the wall and leant on it once it closed, he stared up at the ceiling, his robotic eye told him everything it was made of and calculated what amount of power it would take to knock it down. Then, he had no idea why, he lifted a hand up and felt the metal eye. Once again, he could not feel it, it only resisted it as real inside his robotic brain, it glowed brighter for a second then dimmed down into nothing, its calculations of the world around it flashing in front of Perry's face.

"_An eye for an eye..."_

Perry whipped round to see who just spoke, but no one was there.

"_An eye for an eye..."_

There it was again, it sounded like his master, it sounded like Doofenshirmtz. Except, he was not here, though the voice and words echoed throughout the hallway and corridors, Perry wondered if anyone else could hear it.

"_An eye for an eye..._"

He shook his head, his circuits were frying up again, that was all, he needed to go to the repair room, so he forced his way forward and down to the room.

When Perry reached the room, not a lot of robots were there, there was only a hovering-bot that was being screwed up in one corner and a Norm-bot locked in a glass prison, its head and arms spinning around faster and faster whilst it came out with random words and sentences.

"_I like puppies and ponies_!" It said in a slightly broken voice "_Could I interest you in a nice icy beverage_?"

The Platyborg shook his head at it.

"_Yes, sir, how can I help you?_" Perry turned to his left and a Norm-bot with a red cross painted onto his chest was there, its red eyes glowing menacingly at him, it made Perry's one good eye, narrow.

In reply, Perry tapped his mechanic eye.

"_Right this way, sir,_" The robot said and Perry followed him to another machine with a stretcher that pushed into it. "_Please lie down on this_,"

Hesitating for a moment, Perry did as he was told and lay down on the stretcher.

"_Please remain still,_" The robot said and pressed a button on a panel, the stretcher began to move towards the machine, Perry could hear its groaning and clanking as he came closer and closer towards it. He wondered if the machine would pick up the strange pictures and sound he kept seeing and hearing. Maybe it would get rid of them? It _was_ a malfunction after all, right?

The machine let out a loud hiss and Perry felt his metal body shudder suddenly, robots don't shudder. The stretcher carried him further under the machine, lights beeped and flashed above his head, calculating and scanning him, the Platyborg felt beams focused on his eye, where he had pointed to the Norm-bot.

It seemed to Perry though, that the lights above him were getting brighter and he watched as they danced about in front of his face. They began to grow brighter and brighter, until even his robotic eye could not see anything but white. He tried to turn his face away, lowering it slightly, but when he did, he did not see mechanics or metal, he saw a bright green swaying in the wind, a strange yet welcoming smell filled his nostrils and when he looked up again, he saw two figures sitting beneath a tall, brown and green thing. They were talking and laughing, their voices seemed so familiar, so friendly. But when Perry moved forward to touch them, the vision vanished and in its place were the beeping and the metal of the machine. A loud whirling and beeping noise sounded above him, an alarm.

He leapt up from the stretcher, completely forgetting what had just happened and pushed his way out the machine, shoving past the robot and out into the corridor. The alarm roared in his ears, a red light flashed in front of his metal eye and words flashed onto the screen. 'ALERT!' It said 'ALERT! INTRUDERS! ALERT! ALERT!'

He quickly marched to the entrance hall where Doofenshmitz was standing, surrounded by his Norm-bot guards. His gaze landed onto Perry and motioned him over, Perry obediently marched over to his master and noticed a great gleaming, cunning smile wiped onto his face.

"They've come Platyborg! They've arrived!" He said in an almost happy voice.

Perry looked around his master at the doors, he heard cries from outside and a screen came up on top of the doors. An image of a group of children appeared on the screen, at the head of them all was a girl, ginger hair bellowing in the wind, eyes covered with a pair of dark sunglasses yet her gaze seemed to be right on them. It was the girl from before. From the warning tape.

The resistance had come.


	7. Chapter 6

After the explosion occurred, Carl had found himself being swept off his feet and sent backwards through the air where he came into contact with something hard. He fell and almost lost consciousness, a great throbbing arose in his head and he placed a hand up to it painfully, when he drew his hand away to look at it, it seemed blurry and fuzzy, but there was no doubt what the red substance on his hand was.

He coughed the dust away from throat and shakily sat up against the wall he'd been slammed into, his leg felt stiff and aching, maybe it was broken, but he needed to move, soon robots would come swarming back into the room.

He looked around him, a look of horror wiped across his face, the agents were strewn about the room, all unmoving, injured and Carl dreaded to think what had happened to some. He looked around for his boss, the major and turned, seeing him, leaning against another wall on the other side of the room, he was moving, that was a good thing, but his gaze seemed to be fixed on something else.

Carl turned his head and what he saw made a joy pierce his heart. Agent P! He was right there, standing in the doorway to the room, smoke and dust gathering around him. But he noticed something else too, Monogram seemed to have too. Perry was both without his hat and...his _body._

With heavy, clunking, metallic steps, Perry marched forward, straight towards Major Monogram. Carl could do nothing, his leg was broken, his head felt like it was on fire, all he could do was watch with eyes wide with fear.

The robot that was once Perry halted before the Major, one eye glowing bright blue in the dull room, the dust gathered within Carl's open mouth, but he was too scared to cough or even let out a squeak of terror. The robot lifted up a hand, a metal hand and in its palm there glowed a bright red light, tight in front of Monogram's face, who just stared with almost the more amount of shock and terror which was on Carl's.

All Carl could do was watch, watch and feel a tremendous feeling of hopelessness and vulnerability and a deep welling fear which seemed to have by now, fully engulfed him in its flames. The robot's hands glowed brighter and it flashed in a great light of red, Carl looked away, not wanting to see what happened to his former boss and then the tears began to fall. He dared not move, not make a sound in case the used-to-be-Perry saw him, heard him and do the same thing to him as he had done to Monogram.

He heard the machine give a Platypus noise, just like the one that Perry used to make, except more metallic and echoing slightly. It seemed to have been an order, because a whole bunch of robots came in through the doorway and through the holes in the walls, collecting up the fallen agents, one came over to the Major and lifted him up over its shoulder and disappeared out of room.

Carl watched it all unfold, but his inner self told him that he could not be captured, not now, not ever. He stared at the computers beside him and the sudden realisation came into his mind. With their data they could find the other agents HQs and bases around the world, Doofenshmitz and his evil league would be able to take over all of them with that data.

The intern looked over the Platypus robot and the other bots. All of their backs were turned, for now anyway. With a slight groan, he crawled forward, the debris and the dirt scraping against his worn skin and tattered uniform and with a great amount of effort and thankfully without getting caught, he reached the computer and with a few pushing of buttons, it managed to switch on.

Carl sighed with relief and grabbed a memory stick from his pocket, he was surprised that it seemed unharmed, but that did not matter now, he plugged it into the computer and began to download the software, the data, everything the agency had on their ware bouts and agents onto the stick.

He waited, grabbing his aching leg in pain and staring up at the robots, holding onto the smallest amount of hope he had of getting away from them with the stick without getting noticed. He swallowed the hoarse and painful feeling in his throat, the computer gave out a dim, dead beep which stopped suddenly in a groan, the computer fizzed and a loud spark flew off it.

At the noise, the robotic Perry whipped its head around, its eye bright and staring straight at Carl with such a emotionless, yet hateful face that it made Carl squeal at the sight. The robot began to march forward and after it took just two steps, the intern decided it was time to go.

He ripped the memory stick from the computer and quickly struggled to his feet and began to run towards a hole in the wall, Perry pursued in haste and when the intern reached the gap the robot lifted a hand and fired the same red light that had cast Monogram down. It missed and hit the wall above Carl, dust fell onto his head and he dashed out the way just in time, for the wall fell in behind him from the impact of the lazar. He paused for a moment, catching his much needed breath, staring at the cave in. What luck!

No time to stop, so he ran onwards, dragged his broken leg on behind him, his head throbbed and aching, he gritted his teeth at the pain. If Monogram could see him now, he would surely be paying him for doing this! As he ran, he saw, once again, another hole in the wall and leapt outwards into the sunlight, or should I saw, the dimming sunlight.

Dark, black clouds seemed to have attacked the sky and were gradually covering up the only means of light Carl could see. He heard the sound of robots in the rubble behind him, pursuing him; soon they would catch him too.

He was panicking now, even more so than before, he clutched the stick in his hands with shaking fingertips and saw a delivery truck approaching from the side of the road. A light bulb flashed inside Carl's head and he dashed forward towards the road, the truck approaching steadily, he waited at the side of the road, the panic and fear burning his stomach. If he did not time this right, it would be bye-bye Carl!

The truck drove by but Carl held out a hand and managed to grab hold of a bar stuck out of the very back of the vehicle, in doing so, he was swept of his feet by the truck and carried off down the road along with it. He turned around to the back of the truck and opened the hatch at the back, swallowing his fear and diving into the storage area.

The robots were just coming out when he turned around, they didn't seem to have noticed the truck disappearing down the road and the intern smiled, shutting the hatch with a clank.

With a huge sigh, he leant back on the boxes behind him; his eyes grew heavy and tired. With a groan of pain, he placed a hand on his throbbing head again, pulling it away, he found even more of the red substance swept across his fingers. But in his other hand, he clutched the memory stick tightly.

"I'll make you proud sir!" He whispered in determination and his eyes drooped "I swear..." And he fell back in a agonising sleep.


	8. Chapter 7

It was the sudden jolt of the truck that woke Carl up, it made him fall backwards with a shriek and land behind all the boxes. He groaning in pain and clutched his wounded leg as it throbbed dully. He felt stiff and dizzy, nausea seemed to have crawled up him whilst he had slept, no, he didn't feel any better.

The trucks hatch opened behind him and he turned over to look between a couple of boxes, a man reached in and took out a large box and took it away, whistling a tune to himself. Taking this opportunity, Carl climbed out from his hiding place and slipped out of the truck. With a quick look around, he found the cost was clear and hobbled away into a bunch of bushes at the side of the road.

He sat there for a while, feeling safe amongst the leafs and the branches, as if nobody would find him. Though he still felt sickly and his head felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped on it. He couldn't hide forever, sooner or later someone would find him and if Doofenshmitz was getting stronger and more powerful, it would be the robots that would find him.

The agency was down, nothing could protect Danville now and nothing could protect the Tri State area from the evil that was now going to unfold. Carl mind back tracked to that moment in the room, the battle, the explosion and most of all...Perry.

He was sure Doofenshmitz had done something to him; Perry was no longer just a regular platypus, no longer fully animal or life-like. He could plainly remember the robotic parts on the platypus, the metal arm and hand, the clunking of one foot and the red light shooting from one hand. Also, the eye, the one robotic eye that looked so...evil, if that was the word. There had been no emotion Carl had seen in the robot Perry, he could not see any kind of life or guilt or sadness within him. He wondered how Perry's owners would feel if they ever found out their beloved pet, friend and family had been turned into..._that._

Silently, the intern poked his head from out of the bushes, the truck had gone. There was no way he could get away now; he desperately looked around for a way out and another, safer, more secure hiding spot. His grip tightened on the memory stick with all the information of the world agency on it, it was all up to him now.

He crept out from the spot and edged forward onto the path, looking around him, he was relieved to find nobody about, by the look of the sky and the dulling light, Carl figured it was getting late, so of course everyone would be at home by now.

Now the question was, what should he do now? He opened his hand and looked down at the memory stick; he knew he needed to get it somewhere safe, where nobody could find it. Maybe he should destroy it? But then there would be no way to contact the other HQs for help but is he did, would they help.

Well, whatever he was going to do, he couldn't do it just standing about, so he hobbled away into the coming night, great black clouds hung overhead and after he had just walked a few blocks, rain began to fall. This day was not going at all well for him, his leg felt like it would give way at any moment and his head...oh how that hurt, he needed a doctor. No way could he go to the hospital though, going there would mean he could easily be found by Doofenshmitz and his robots.

He struggled on through the onslaught of falling rain, it hammered against him until he was drenched down to the bone and once again, Carl felt himself getting ever weaker and a great whirling amount of sickness washed over him. No more, he could go no further.

With a groan, he fell to his knees and looked up to the sky above him; it was as if nature itself had turned against him. Nothing was on his side and he was completely and utterly...alone. It made his heart burn and then the tears fell.

He sat there to what seemed to him a few thousand years and then he wiped his tears away with a wet, torn up sleeve, staring down at the ground. Then he noticed, the rain was no longer falling, had it stopped? No, it couldn't have, he could still hear it thundering around him and with a intake of breath, the young intern looked up and saw a little girl, a girl with long raven-black hair wearing a big black coat. In her hand, she held an umbrella which she had lifted over him, to shield the wounded boy from the torture of the rain.

"Watcha doin?" Isabella asked.

At first Carl looked up to her in confusion, what was she doing here? Then he looked around and noticed, he was in Phineas and Ferb's neighbourhood. He probably didn't notice because of the rain and the nausea and the horrible throbbing in his head.

"I-I..." He couldn't speak; his throat was hoarse and sore. He sat up a little and winced at the pain in his leg.

"Are you okay? You look terrible," Isabella said in a voice of worry, she knelt down beside the intern and examined his leg "It looks broken, I'll take you to the hospital."

"NO!" Carl cried and then quickly covered his mouth; the girl looked up to him in complete surprise and blinked "N-no, can you just take me somewhere where I can, you know, rest for a while?"

Isabella stared for a moment and nodded, Carl shifted a little and managed to stand up, but his legs felt shakily and unsteady, begging to be rested again. He stumbled forward and in response his head filled with dizziness and he nearly fell over if it were not for the lamp post beside him.

"I got you," Isabella said and smiled, with a great amount of struggling and with Carl leaning on the girl for support, they reached her house Isabella opened the door and the two stumbled inside. Isabella placed him on the couch and called out for her mother "Mum! Mum, we have a guest, he's hurt!"

There was no reply from the house, Isabella ran into the kitchen and over to the medicine cupboard where there were a few bandages to spare, she took them out carefully and called again "Mum! He's hurt come over here!"

Still, there was no reply and Isabella suddenly became desperate and ran all around the house calling her mother, even calling her by her name. But there was no sign of Mrs Garcia-Shapiro.

"I don't understand," Isabella said with a worried voice when she came back into the living room "She never leaves the house this late and not without telling me first."

Carl said nothing and the girl exited to room again and returned with a bowl of water and a cloth.

"I told her I was going to be home late from the fireside convention, " She said and dapped the wet cloth on Carl's wounded head, he winced in pain as the water stung the cut, Isabella smiled in assurance and Carl allowed her to continue until she had successfully cleaned it and wrapped it up in bandages. Carl listened to her talk of how her mother would not leave home all the while, without him saying a word and by the time she had finished, even he was feeling a deep sense of worry for the girl's mum.

"What's your name anyway?" Isabella asked and Carl blinked "Mine's Isabella."

For a moment, the question seemed foreign to Carl but then his voice managed to speak for itself and with a weak voice he answered "My name is Carl..."

"Nice to meet you Carl," the girl smiled warmly and sat down at the end of the couch he was lying on and stared at him intently. "What happened to you anyway?"

Carl opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again, should he reveal the agency's secret to a young girl? It didn't seem likely. He closed his mouth again and looked down to the floor, would she even believe him if he told her? Her own pet dog was in the battle, how she would react when he told her he was either captured... or...

"Carl?" The intern raised his head again and looked into Isabella's begging, innocent eyes and he suddenly felt a little dead inside.

"I-," He was interrupted by a sudden load noise, a noise of static, the two turned to look over to the television screen and saw it flashing on and off, snow fussing on the screen, then a face showing and disappearing in the static.

Then the screen turned still and an image of a man appeared, he wore black all over, he wore long black rubber gloves and one eye was missing, an eye patch with a white scar pattern was pierced onto it. At the sight of the man, Carl's eyes widened and he pushed himself further into the couch, his heart became as loud as thunder, whacking itself against his ribcage.

"What's wrong, who is he?" The raven-haired girl asked, desperation clung to her voice. But the intern could not answer, Doofenshmitz had begun to talk.

"_My dear people of the Tri State area!"_ He said, his voice sounded slightly different, as if _real_ hate had been sucked into him_. "Some of you might have noticed the sudden 'disappearance' of your loved ones, this is because I, Doctor Heinz Doofenshmitz, now your overall leader and ruler, have taken them to work in one of my new factories. There they will work to get their families money, of course, the less in a family, the more they will have to work to give their own family provisions, soon you will find robots going through the streets and these will assign you to your new clothing! Listen now! This is the dawn of a new era! The era of terror! I am your leader! Obey me and you will survive!"_ a great, beaming, evil smile managed to creep up the doctor's face and Carl shivered at the sight of it _"Oh and anyone who disobeys will be thrown into the dungeons for sentence, I'll be watching you..."_ It was then Carl felt the man's gaze fall on him, as if he could see straight through the screen, right at him, right into his fear-filled soul. _"All of you..."_ And the screen went dim.

He knew, he knew where he was, what he was doing, what he _had_. Carl looked down to the memory stick in his hand, he watched his fingers and arm shake hysterically. Never before had he seen the doctor like this before, he was truly evil now, whatever happened with him and Perry must have been...He dreaded to think. What did he do now? That was the question _What should he do?_

He put a hand on his now sweating head and looked up to Isabella, her face suddenly pale, she knew where her mother was, she would be now working in the factory, for her own wellbeing. Maybe she would never see her again. Carl thought back to Major Monogram and his own eyes seemed to fill with tears. Staying here would put the girl in danger, leaving would still bring Doofenshmitz here to kidnap the girl.

Nothing, he could do nothing, like the spineless, stupid coward he was. _Nothing._

Carl looked down to the floor again, the tears welling up in his eyes, his head throbbing painfully again. Isabella was sobbed beside him, but all he had eyes for was the floor, he could still see the tiny dog hairs that belonged to Pinky and smiled, remembered the little agent. Agent...Carl's head shot up. AGENT!

"Come here!" Carl cried to Isabella and leapt up from his perch and hobbled over to a painting on the wall, if he could remember, if he could just remember... He grabbed the picture and span it round to the right five times, then to the left twice. In response this ground beneath him opened up and with a yell of surprise he grabbed hold of Isabella and dragged her down with him, down into the tunnels below.

There was indeed nothing Carl could do. But he could protect the girl and he could help others, they could hide from the evil above and when they were ready, yes, when they were ready, they could even, probably, maybe, fight back.

Until then, he had allot of explaining to do.


	9. Chapter 8

The weeks went by slowly and it seemed that nearly every child of the Tri State area had been smuggled into the secret lair. Carl had blocked up alot of the entrances to the place, only a few remained, soon after him explaining to Isabella about his work and the agents, they had heard a scuffling and smashing from up above. They sat down there in the darkness for a while and when they finally had the courage and the strength to climb back to up the house, the entire place was trashed, it would be best if they stayed beneath the house now.

Then the children became to make their way here, from under the house and through the secret entrances. Isabella had took it upon herself to bring those children into the lair whose parents, like her own, had been taken to the factories and so the children had no one. Though as time went on, there came more and more of those robots appearing on the streets. No more children could appear within the lair.

Carl seemed to be the one in charge of everything now, it was a great big step up from being an intern, but since he seemed to be one of the oldest, almost all the kids looked up to him. It wasn't a good position for him though, he had to cover up their tracks a lot of the time and make sure Doofenshmitz was not stalking them.

Among that, the children also began to look up to Isabella; she seemed, overall, the bravest and hard working among them all. She made sure all the children had what they wanted and she herself organised food parties to go and get food from the world above. It seemed to get riskier though, more difficult and dangerous to return to the surface once, one of the parties that went up was attacked and a couple of kids were taken.

After that, Carl decided that he would train some of the kids, there needed to be some sort of strength within them to fight back in case something like that happened again. So, using Pinky's old training systems, he set it up and taught the kids all he had been told and what he'd observed back at HQ.

He also set up teams; he set up groups and jobs for people. He made different levels within the lair, privates, captains and commanders and they rose upwards from there, the one who seemed to be doing the most progress was Isabella. She seemed very strong and willing, she changed the name of her Fireside troop to the Fire_storm_ troop, they all agreed on that and no matter what, that strong group of girls stayed together.

The young girl, who used to be so innocent and kind, had grown up so much during the last month or so. She and many others in the lair no longer wore their pretty little frocks and sunshine clothes, instead, they made their way into the agents costume section and changed into commando clothing and when some sizes ran out, they began making some from the scraps. Isabella's expression had also turned harder, more serious and stern and when Carl upgraded her, she took it very seriously.

It hurt Carl to see these young children grow up at a faster rate than they should, but at the same time, he admired them. They had managed to let go of the past so easily and if they had not, they did a really good job at hiding it and getting on with the present. But himself...He could not get the picture of what happened at the agency out of his head, all he could think of was Perry and the red light shooting from his one metallic hand and the Major...falling from the flash that happened in front of his face.

He noticed that the other children had begun to see his thoughts; it was as if they could see right through his eyes. But they knew what he had been through, Isabella explained, but still Carl had not told of the major details that happened within the base. The children saw the scars on his head, how he walked with a limp and saw him as a hero, a leader. He was no such thing and that made him sick. He was nothing but a coward, he ran when the agency needed him and now that he sat at his own desk beneath the Garcia Shapiro house he still felt unworthy of his role.

He sat at his desk, head in his hands, staring down at the diagrams of the sewage systems and the plans and blueprints they had obtained, even letters and reports from factories and homes and the streets and hacked information from the Doofenshmitz network. Carl looked at them again and again, day and night, until dark bags had appeared under his eyes and he was so tired, so very tired. It seemed nothing he thought of could get the captured children, parents, adults and agents out of the Doofenshmitz building and dungeons. Everything seemed impossible.

"Sir?" Carl raised his head to the knock at the door and the small, strong voice that called inside.

"Come in," he answered and moved the papers about on the table, trying to look busy. In reply, the door opened and in came one of his captains, Isabella. Who else of course? "What is it?"

"I've come to give these to you," she said and held out an envelope to her leader, who took it with a sigh "Also, I needed to report to you about something."

"Hm-hm," was all Carl muttered and undid the envelope, he took out the bunch of papers from inside and found them to be more underground maps, some were the agency's, others were other hidden sewage systems. Then there were the underground tracks which he stared intently at.

"We've found there has been a lot of robot activity around this street, I think they may be onto us sir," Isabella continued and Carl nodded slowly, observing the tracks carefully "Should we reduce the surface parties, sir?"

Carl looked up to the girl as if stunned for a moment, then shook it off "Erm, yes, try to keep low profile for now, but I'd like to check something out tonight, if you don't mind. Could you gather some of your troop, not too many, this is a small mission, I don't want us being found."

"Of course sir," Isabella said and turned to leave.

"Don't call me that," Carl muttered with a wave of his hand.

Isabella paused and looked back at the young man, his face worn from sleepless nights and from staring at computer screens and papers all day long, trying to protect them. She nodded slowly and respectfully and then left the room to gather her troop.

It was later that night when Carl met up with his number one captain and her troop. She was talking to them all in her new, serious and strict voice and they all saluted her in respect, obeying her willingly. Would they do so well for him?

As he approached, the girls saw him and saluted in turn, he wished they wouldn't and his eyebrows arched in an annoyance that only orders could fill and change.

"We are going to the surface," he said "Some of us may need to split up at some point, please don't argue, stay down and stay quiet, there are still robots about."

"Yes sir!" All the girls said in chorus and followed their leader as he approached one of the lair's lifts. It led upwards into a post-box, it wasn't used anymore, it seemed like it never did, still after all the uses of the children, it was covered in dust and spiders hid in the gaps silently.

Carl rose upwards alone first, and once he reached the surface; he opened the hatch in the side of the box and looked about quickly. It was so strange coming to the surface after such a long time, everything felt so cold and it was as if you could actually smell the danger in the air.

There were no robots about as of yet, she he stamped twice on the lift below him and stepped out into the street before the lift went down once more. They did this until all the girls had come up, including Carl and Isabella, there were five of them and the other three seemed used to this and were scanning the area around them for any signs of danger.

"Right," Carl whispered "You two, I want you to head towards the end of the street, stay out of sight and wait for us there, if a robot comes by, I want you to steal part of its data, back of the neck, don't be caught, got it?" The two girls he addressed nodded and snuck out into the darkness. Leaving Carl with Isabella and the last girl, Ginger Carl thought her name was.

"Follow me," Carl hissed and led the way across the road, tiptoeing carefully, not once keeping his gaze face forward, but looking from left to right, side to side, scared that at any moment a robot would crash out onto the road and attack them. But they reached the other side without one showing up.

"Right then now-,"

"Get down!" Isabella hissed and shoved her leader into the bushed ahead, Ginger leapt in after them and between the branches, Carl watched as a couple of bots went past, they didn't stop, so they hadn't noticed the kids. But Carl noticed that he hadn't heard them coming, they needed to be more cautious.

"The cost is clear!" Ginger said.

Carl nodded and scrambled out from the back of the bush and on all fours, crawled forward towards the fence and gate of the house they had arrived at "Follow me, _quietly!_" Carl whispered again and the two Firestorm girls followed until they had reached the fence. The gate was locked, a great padlock hung from it like a mocking knight. Hissing in a breath of annoyance, Carl looked up to the top of the fence.

"We'll have to climb," Carl held his hands together and held the out "Up you go." Ginger went first, Carl held her up to see if there was anything in the garden, she shook her head down to him so he tossed her over, over the other side, there was a thump of which she landed on her feet. Isabella went next and climbed up, sitting on the fence to help Carl over too.

When the ex-intern landed though, he gasped in shock at the sight. The tree, the tree had gone.

The girls didn't know it, because they didn't know who lived here, it was Phineas and Ferb's house. The tree, the tree was the main, most sacred entrance Agent P used to use to get to his own lair. Infarct, it was the first one he used, the very first, when he was nothing but a...Carl shook his head in dismay, he needed to get the images out of his head.

Tiptoeing forward, he examined the nasty hole in the earth, thanks to the lair's security systems, the earth had poured in over the hole, which entrance was now probably blocked up from top to foot. No way to get in here, he turned to the house and snuck up to the side of the wall where he tapped on a side of a wall, he remembered how to get in from here. One of the planks turned over and revealed the small entrance. It would have to do.

He beckoned the two over and squeezed into the gap where he slid down into the darkness below. His feet touched solid ground and stepped forward, allowing the other two to land beside him. He clicked a button on his watch and a light came on, it illuminated the area around them, after all this time, he was back in this place. Carl sighed and stepped forward to what seemed like the very past he was trying to get rid of.

Dust was everywhere, it had gathered quite quickly from the weeks of regret and loneliness. The screen where Monogram used to give out missions was cracked and worn, spiders swarmed on it slowly, disappearing when the light shone upon them. The spinney chair where Perry used to sit was also broken, toppled to one side, cushions decaying and covered in dust. Then there was the glass case where Perry laid his hat to rest for a break. It was empty. What had become of that hat Carl wondered?

"Sir, where are we?" Isabella asked and stood beside Carl, observing the dust around her.

"This was one of our top agent's lairs," Carl answered, and headed over to one of the computer panels and wiped the dust away from the buttons.

"What are we doing her then? Wouldn't Doofenshmitz's robots have found this place by now?"

"Probably," Carl answered and turned the machine on, it hissed and spat but managed to turn itself on, all but one of the old screens worked and the two girls watched as Carl began to type. The two behind him remained silent and carried on looking around them, both a little hesitant and worried.

"What are you doing?" Isabella asked, leaning over Carl's shoulder.

"I'm trying to collect data from the Doofenshmitz network, the computers in our own lair don't have the right information to do so, not yet anyway, I can hack it better from here and if we get caught or found out, it won't lead the bots to the others. I need a file; I need a little bit more information for something else..." The ex-intern said and his sentence faded away into nothing. He pressed a few more buttons and clicked a few more things and the screen flashed bright green, leaving a large beaming smile on the young man's face "We're in!"

He began typing away, quicker and quicker, his face become more focused and arched, sweat dropped down the side of his face, tickling his skin irritably. He scanned through the files as quickly as he could; collecting as much data on the disk he'd entered as possible. Then he found another file which made him pause and stare. The file was called 'Ripped-roses3468' what could that mean? He clicked the file, the screen flashed red, it was blocked, it looked like a billion passwords and firewalls were all over it. But whatever was in the file, it seemed Doofenshmitz wanted to keep it as secret as secret can be, Carl's curiously was overflowing, should he risk opening the file and hacking a countless amount of firewalls, passwords and who knows what else is blocking the way to the secret? He could probably trigger some alarm system. No, best not try it now. But he took a note of the name of the file and finished taking the necessary from the computer, whether or not he'd revealed their whereabouts, he didn't know, but he took the disk from the drive and nodded to Isabella and Ginger.

"Did we get what we need?" Isabella asked once they'd leapt back over the fence again and Carl nodded in reply "Are we heading back to base then?"

"No, not yet, one more trip we have to make," Carl said and headed down the street, using bins, bushes and fences as cover.

"Where are we going?" Ginger asked quietly.

"I need to get information from a robot and also, we need to take a trip to evil Incorporated..."

"What?" Isabella hissed "That's insane! We've not even got backup or the proper equipment to invade the place yet! We'll get ourselves captured, or worse!"

"We're not going _inside,_ I didn't say anything about that," Carl sniffed and crept behind another fence "We just need to find sewer exits, cooling shafts and take pictures; I need to know more about the area, we need visual sight of where everything is and not just rely on the blueprints."

Isabella gave a worried look but followed on behind the leader, they met up with the other two girls who had managed to sneak some data off an unsuspecting robot and it was now lying in some nearby bushes, parts stripped off him. The girls thought they could collect some of the parts on the way back to make their own robots. Carl admired their ideas.

They were about to head forward when they heard a snap of a twig behind them, they all paused and Carl slightly turned his head.

"Did you hear that?" He whispered to Isabella and she nodded in reply.

"You head forward, I'll backtrack and see who it is," and with a worried look, Carl, Ginger and the other two girls walked forward as if nothing had happened whilst Isabella silently broke off from the group and went behind the intruder.

"HAAAYYAH!" Isabella cried and a yelp came from the bushes, Carl and the others in the troop raced forward and pointed their watch-lights at the person who had fallen from Isabella's kick. The body groaned and Carl's eyes widened.

The young head looked up, long ginger hair falling in front of her face, grey clothes marked with Doofenshmitz's logo upon it. Her eyes wide themselves, blue and staring into his own, but inside he saw determination, a strength he had never seen, not even in the young Isabella. He withdrew his watch at the girl, who looked up to him, a look of recognition on her face.

"Hello Candace Flynn."


	10. Chapter 9

"But you have to let me come along with you!" Candace cried at Carl and the girls, none of them answered her, no matter how much she cried and yelled and begged. She opened her mouth to scream again but one of them quickly covered her mouth, a group of robots drove past their hiding place, one of them stopped and looked around and all in the bushes held in their breath. But then it turned and caught up with the others. Everyone let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Are you crazy!" One of the girls hissed "Do you want us to get caught?"

The ginger-haired girl frowned and shoved the girl out the way, heading towards Carl who sat staring out onto the street and into the distance, where they could see the tall, devouring Doofenshmitz Incorporated building, looming over them like a tiger ready to pounce.

"You!" Candace spat as she approached the young man "You're the leader right? Let me come with you!"

"No," was all Carl said and took out a pair of binoculars from his belt and stared out down across the street.

"But you have to let me! Haven't I seen too much? What if I go tell the robots about you, eh? What will you do then? I'll get you arrested!" The girl argued and again, Carl remained silent and Candace's face turned red with inpatient rage "Look, I'm not kidding! I'll go tell, I know where you and those kids go and live! I can tell them everything! I've seen you, I've watched you, stealing things from the bots and going against Doofenshmitz! I can tell them if you don't let me come along! I will!"

"You won't though..." Carl insisted and lowered the binoculars and turned to the girl, her face still red with anger "Will you?" His words were not stern at all, they were serious and deep and as he stared right at her, right into her, Candace realised she wouldn't. It was a risk she couldn't take, she herself had her reasons. Carl turned back around and looked through the binoculars once more.

Candace sighed and sat back, pulling her legs up to her chest and quietly, trying to hold in the tears of her helplessness. How vulnerable she felt now, how cut off from the world she was and how much she hated Doofenshmitz and the robots. Inside her the lava bubbled and boiled, as if ready to burst. She no longer wanted to sit at home waiting for something to happen, she didn't want to sit cowering in the corner waiting for something to burst through that door and catch them. She refused to do _nothing._

"Look, Carl is it?" Candace managed to speak and shuffled forward beside him "I have a family at home, two little brothers too and they all mean the world to me...Though I might not show it...and...I don't want them to get hurt, I don't want them to grow up and have to go to those horrible factories like my dad! Please...let me join you, I want to be able to protect the people I love!"

The ex-intern slowly lowered the binoculars and turned over to the girl, he saw the desperation, the determination and growing strength in her eyes. He could see the anger; he could see the sadness, the loneliness, the helplessness and most of all, which grabbed his heart tightly... was the love.

They sat like that for a moment and Carl felt her begging taking him over. He didn't want to put anyone else in danger, but...she wanted to do this, not for her, but for her family. He let out a huge, agonising sigh and dug into the small pack he was carrying, he took out a bandana and threw it over to her.

"Wear that, you don't want to be recognised," Carl said, the girl nodded and wrapped the black cloth over her head "Isabella, do you and the girls have any spare clothing on you for her to wear, we don't want ourselves being noticed."

"Yes sir, Firestorm troops are always prepared!" Isabella saluted and she and the girls brought out a vest top and a short skirt along with a pair of boots. "Sorry about the skirt being short, we don't have a lot of tall people in the group," Isabella explained as she handed them over.

Then Candace scurried away to get changed and soon she returned and as the other girls smiled seeing her dressed so, Carl turned and his jaw dropped a mile. She looked, spectacular, her long hair wafting in the breeze, the black bandana over it, the vest top and skirt wrapped tightly around her and the boots high up on her legs. It was as if she'd stepped into a whole new skin, she looked more or less like a warrior now and her serious expression showed them that she now felt part of something and her strength shined through.

"Sir?" Ginger asked the leader and Carl shook his head away from the new Candace, nodding and with a motion of his hand, they made their way out of the bushes and towards the Doofenshmitz Incorporated building.

It didn't take as long as Carl though to get to the building and he was surprised with how few robots were out tonight. He patted his pack gently and felt the CD in its case there; satisfied he edged closer to the building, hiding behind bins and boxes. The girls joined him by his side and together they stared up at the building, where all they hated originated from. The one who took away their homes, freedom, family and everything they once knew. Together, all at the same time, the hatred in their hearts grew stronger and they scowled up to the windows above and although they didn't want to be caught, they hoped he would see them, disobeying them, fighting against him. It would show him that they would not sit down and let him take over.

"Doofenshmitz is going down..." Candace hissed as they stared upwards.

"Okay," Carl said and retreated back into an alleyway "I need you to take pictures and make notes!" He tossed them all a notebook and a camera each "Draw as many diagrams and take as many pictures as you can, find out where the robots are patrolling and note it down, find out where the sewage systems are, find the air conditioning shafts, anything that can help us! Got it?"

"Yes sir!" The girls said in chorus and saluted before sneaking away into the darkness, Isabella with Ginger towards the side of the building and the other two girls went off together in another direction. Both groups barely made a sound.

Then Carl turned and jumped at the sight of Candace standing right there staring at him "Why don't you go off with the others?" He said and snuck his way forward.

"Everyone already had a partner, you didn't," the teen answered.

Carl rolled his eyes and quickly hid behind a nearby dumpster; another group of robots went past and thankfully, didn't notice them. But still, Carl thought it was strange that not as many robots were out and about, it wasn't like Doofenshmitz to set up so little patrols. He took out his binoculars again and stared up to the building, there were windows there now, lots of them, a screen and in there he colour just see the purple and black of which the doctor's office now consisted of.

If they could find a way up through the windows they could take Doofenshmitz hostage right there and then. But it would way to dangerous and much too risky. For all Carl knew, he could have a whole bunch of robot guards up there ready to protect him. Then there was Perry...Who was more robot now than Platypus. The memory made him shiver.

He turned to Candace who was already zooming in on the roof and snapping some pictures with her camera. Carl admired her persistence and determination, but she would have to do a lot more than just follow them around and take pictures, there were a lot more challenging things ahead of them.

"How did you become the leader then?" Candace suddenly asked, catching Carl off guard. The ex-intern cleared his throat and hurried across the street when he leapt behind another dumpster; Candace followed a little hesitantly and managed to reach the other side before another group of robots passed by.

"Well?" The girl asked and leant against the dumpster beside the young man.

"It just sort of happened I guess..." Carl replied and looked over the top of the bin, after seeing that no one was watching, he proceeded down the side of the building, scanning the wall and the ground for any tunnels or shafts.

"Then they must look up to you then," Candace suggested and Carl halted, looking down to the ground in thought. Maybe they did, but he wasn't a good leader for them, he'd put them all in enough trouble as it is and maybe it was because of him that Doofenshmitz was now in power.

"I shouldn't be the one they look up to..." Carl whispered out loud and Candace frowned at this, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Don't say that, you must have done great things to become that you are today, look at you, you took in all those kids and taught them how to survive and get along, you're like a hero!" She said and a slight smile appeared on her face, her eyes looked upwards to the scar oh Carl's head, shielded mostly by his head that had begun to grow. Then she looked down to his leg, of which he always limped on when he walked.

Carl followed her gaze and shook her hand off of him, staring at the sky, clouds shielded the stars and the beautiful midnight blue sky, they were more like smoke than anything, from those dead and dull factories that the doctor had made.

"No, I didn't do anything great..." Carl admitted and hung his head in shame "I ran when they needed me most, I was a coward, I left them all and saved myself... And...I don't know what happened to them; maybe I'll never know..."

Candace remained silent, not knowing why the so called 'fearless leader' was telling her all this and to be honest, neither did Carl. It seemed that after all this time in keeping it locked up inside him; it had finally driven Carl to the point where he couldn't keep it in any longer. All the lies and pain he'd kept had rotted inside of him and built up into a guilt he couldn't be rid of.

He lifted a hand and felt the scar on his head, hidden beneath his unkempt hair. The painful memories swimming inside his mind, the scar was a reminder, a reminder of the past and that awful day in the agency. That was all gone now.

"Look, Carl," Carl felt the teenager's hands rest upon his shoulders again and she forcefully turned his around, so they were eye to eye and Candace showed an expression pressed with anger and force. "These kids wouldn't have put you in charge in they didn't believe you were the right leader for them, they would trust you and do what you say if they didn't believe you were brave. Its true though, you're scared, you feel guilty, but truth is, we all do. We all feel guilty that we left our families and we all feel like we could have done something to save them and our friends, we're all afraid, Carl, but we choose to be strong now so we can make it better for the future." Carl stared deeply into her eyes, a deep sense of respect and pride flowing into his heart "You got that fearless leader?"

Dimly, Carl nodded slowly.

"Oh and one more thing..."

Carl looked up to her.

She pointed a finger to the floor behind him "Manhole."

He turned and sure enough, there was a manhole that seemed to lead right into the sewer system. He smiled at her and went over to it, Candace came in from behind him and took a few pictures of the manhole and the area around them.

Carl slid the lid of the hole and looked down into it, there seemed to be tunnel leading one way towards the other side of town and another that lead straight under the Doofenshmitz inc building. Maybe this was the key to getting inside and if the other girls had found tunnels close by, they could even plan an attack. They could bring down Doofenshmitz. It wasn't hopeless.

"You see," Candace said, hand on hip "We can do this!"

Carl nodded and rose to his feet, bringing his watch up to his mouth and pressing a button.

"Isabella," he spoke into it and an image of the raven-haired girl appeared on the mini screen "Have you found anything?"

"Yes sir, we found a few manholes and sewer systems my end, I've yet to hear from the other group." She replied.

"Good, call them in, we're heading home!" Carl ordered and the girl nodded the other end.

"Understood sir!"

The screen went blank and Carl lowered his arm. "Time to go Miss Flynn," He said to his partner and they both turned to leave.

Neither understood what happened next or how it came to be, but it happened. All that was heard was a loud, ear-splitting bang, like a bullet being fired from a gun and all that Carl felt next was an unbelievable and horrible pain sweep over him. Everything was in slow motion, Candace turned at the sound of the bang. Carl's face was a wash of shock and agony, he fell forward slowly, ever so slowly, his teeth clenched at the pain and as he fell, Candace saw was what behind him, arm outstretched, smoke steaming away from the palm of its hand.

A robot stood there, surrounded by others, it had its hand out, its metallic black hand burning still, making a slow, taunting, sizzling sound as if laughing at the fallen young man whom Candace caught in her outstretched arms. Her fear rising to the brim and along with it, a deep anger of which she had never felt before.

The robots stood there for a moment, staring at her whilst she stared back, the aching anger of a frown scraped across her face.

Then she ran, lifting Carl up off the floor with her, looping one of his arms around her shoulder and dashing for cover. As soon as she turned the robots began to fire, red lazar after lazar, burning through the dumpster they were once hiding behind. She dashed past it, holding in the screams of terror.

He headed to across the road, making her way towards the alleyway of which they came from; the night seemed to swallow them whole as soon as they took one step onto the road. Red eyes glared at them from all directions and Candace held in a breath of fear.

She halted, surrounded all around, there was no way out, no way out, no way out. She collapsed to her knees, Carl groaned as she fell. He was alive!

"Carl! Carl!" She cried and rested his head upon her lap, his face was filled with pain, cringing in agony and teeth gritted harshly, his face turned white as snow, whiter than before, the bags suddenly darker too. His hair wafted away from his face, revealing the scar hidden beneath the locks.

"Carl! Can you hear me? Are you okay!" Her voice was breaking, a mix of desperation and terror beneath it as she tried to keep in the tears, trying not to reveal the growing lump in her throat.

"C-can-dace..." The young man groaned and gasped as he tried to sit forward, he lifted an arm to behind his shoulder.

"Wait! Try not to move!" Candace said and slowly, as gently as possible, turned him over a little and what she saw there made her gasp and squeal at the same time.

There was a great, gaping hole in his back, raw red skin burning around it, his clothing ripped and torn, singed and battered. Candace brought up her hand and saw it was covered in crimson red. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened in a silent scream and then the tears fell, because she knew there was nothing, absolutely nothing she could do.

"Oh my..." She wheezed, her voice hoarse, as if she hadn't drank for years, she covered her mouth with one hand and the lump in her throat burned her intensely. "No..."

She heard voices calling to her, screaming and yelling, the sound of metal against metal echoed in the air, but she didn't pay attention, everything was gone to her, everything but herself and the dying boy in her arms and the crimson that painted the road. Her heart felt so heavy, burning and raging within her, the tears fell like waterfalls. Nothing she could do, nothing she could do and the pain of knowing that made her want to rip her own soul out.

"C-Can-dace..." the small, cold voice said amidst the banging and crashing around them and the figures dashing to and fro, surrounding them, protecting them, but Candace paid no heed to them. Instead, she looked down to the boy, whose face was twisted in desperation for what he wanted to say.

"Yes? Carl? What is it?" She sniffed and held his hand tightly, not wanting any of this to be real, nor true.

"C-Candace..." He gasped and leant further forward, as far as he could, his breathing heavy and jagged "I-I'm sorry..." He lifted up his hand and put it in hers, Candace felt something being placed there, cold and hard and black. "You'll be..." He gasped once more "A better lead...er than I w-was..." And he smiled slightly, his eyes growing dark "L-look..." He breathed and stared upwards, Candace stared up too "I can see the stars..." True enough, one of the clouds had made way slightly and just a small, tiny patch of stars could be seen through the gap.

"We'll clear that sky for you," Candace said in a small, weak voice "All the best for our fearless leader, okay?" She turned back to the boy, but he wasn't moving. His eyes were closed, a smile was on his face and his chest no longer moved in union to his lungs.

And the tears fell still, though Candace could say nothing. She opened up her hand and saw that there were a pair of black sunglasses there, she narrowed her eyes and lifted them up to her face. As soon as she put them over her face, all the sadness was gone, instead, a deep and loathing anger pierced her heart and there was nothing on earth that could stop it.

She rose to her feet and crashed into the nearest robot, fighting in a way she never thought she could do, from nearby she ripped a long piece of wood from a tall fence and fought her way through the ranks of robot soldiers, her backup fighting behind her. She smashed a nearby robot's head and found herself face to face with a street hover camera.

With eyes full of rage, he was watching, she knew he was.

"Doofenshmitz!" She cried at it "We are the rebels! You have taken something that belongs to us! Our homes! Our lives! Our freedom! You have forced us to stay in our homes, made kind people disappear, destroyed lives and homes and made us your slaves! No more! You are a cruel lying man! You sit on a throne of lies and terror! So let me tell you this! We're coming for you! We will free the people of the Tri State Area! We will free Danville! And YOU!" The girl ripped off her shades, her blue eyes burned with a wild and cold rage, she lifted a finger and pointed at the screen "You're mine!"

She smashed the camera and the battle was over.


End file.
